KOCHI: Considering the health risk posed by Novel Coronavirus, all international airports in Kerala have opened special health counters at the pre-immigration area to screen passengers arriving from the countries where the disease is reported.
Passengers coming from China and Hong Kong will be requested to report at the health desk before proceeding to the immigration desk. Based on the advisory from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Centre for Disease Control, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a direction for immediate implementation of the action plan and strict adherence by identified airports and all airlines concerned.
The action plan includes, in-flight announcements by the airlines coming from any airport in China, requesting passengers with history of fever and cough and history of travel to Wuhan City in the past 14 days to self-declare at the port of arrival or to state health authorities.Airlines staff will guide the passengers in filling up the self-reporting forms before disembarkation so that the filled up format can be checked by the staff on arrival.
“We have implemented the direction from Tuesday onwards. As there are no direct flights from China, we are screening passengers from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.”“On Tuesday, 28 passengers were screened, however no suspected case has been reported,” Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) director A C K Nair told TNIE.